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Haiti PM: Gov't to take land for temporary camps

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive
says the Haitian government will appropriate land to build
temporary camps for earthquake victims. The decision, announced in
an interview with The Associated Press, is potentially explosive in
a country where a small elite owns most of the land in and around
the capital.

That elite, a traditionally corrupting force in Haitian
politics, has the power to bring down the government.

The government owns some land but not enough, Bellerive said in
an interview Thursday, meaning he has no choice but to take over
private terrain.

He would not say how much land will be appropriated.

A report posted at the Web site of the International
Organization for Migration on Friday said a minimum of 450 hectares
(1,112 acres) of flat, non-flood plain land is needed to settle
100,000 displaced people and Haiti's government has identified only
19 hectares (47 acres).

The Jan. 12 quake left 1.2 million homeless, roughly half of
them in Port-au-Prince, meaning the government would need to find a
total of at least 2,700 hectares (6,672 acres) for quake survivors
in the capital, where about a third of Haiti's nearly 10 million
people are concentrated along with the government and almost all
industry.

Bernard Fils-Aime, a businessman, property owner and president
of the American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti, said he was not aware
of anyone in the business community being approached by the
government about land. He said the issue would need to be treated
cautiously.

"Land is one of our very scarce resources and an issue that has
underlined many political conflicts in Haiti since independence," Fils-Aime said. He said he was sure the issue could be negotiated
amicably but warned: "You don't want to create more conflict."

Aid agencies have criticized the government for dragging its
feet on the thorny land issue as relief agencies work against the
clock to find temporary settlements for the homeless before the
spring rainy season.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that "there is little evidence
that meaningful efforts have been made to negotiate the land
acquisition and secure proper land titles. It is essential that
this be given priority" and that any appropriations "be done in a
non-arbitrary and non-discriminatory manner."

The relief agency Oxfam International warned last week that
"The temporary camps where people have congregated are fast
becoming over-crowded slums."

"The government ... needs to clarify whether there is
government land available or if it needs to confiscate private land
instead. These decisions need to be taken quickly."

The Haitian government has seemed to operate on a slower
timetable. On Friday, the economist leading a government emergency
commission on shelter held a news conference, saying government
panels will make decisions in three to four weeks, and that the
homes will be built in five or six months.

In the meantime, Charles Clermont said, people in the private
sector have offered to build 20,000 to 30,000 temporary homes on
private land and, presumably, sell them to the government.

Impromptu camps have sprung up on every bit of available land -
school and university grounds, public gardens, a golf course, the
central Champ de Mars plaza or simply on sidewalks. But the camps,
many made of little more than bed sheets propped up by sticks, have
little sanitation, and early sporadic downpours already are adding
to the misery of their residents.

Haitian law provides for the government to seize land as long as
it is in the public interest and the owners are fairly compensated,
said lawyer Benissoit Jude Detournel, who handles property
disputes.

"There has to be a just and equitable indemnity, taking into
account the market value of the property," Detournel said. He said
setting a price is difficult now in the quake's aftermath.

The government has appropriated land in the past without
conflict - to build a wider road on the western outskirts of
Port-au-Prince four years ago, to protect underground water
aquifers 14 years ago and to construct government buildings in
downtown Port-au-Prince in the 1970s, said Jean-Andre Victor, an
agronomist who worked on a failed government attempt to survey land
ownership in 2003.

But Detournel said his firm still is litigating for owners of
land expropriated by the government near the Port-au-Prince airport
in the 1980s to build a free-trade zone of factories that churn out
T-shirts and other products sold in the United States.

Compensation was paid at the time, but more people showed up
later demanding payment, he said.

Squatters, corrupt notaries and judges often means multiple
individuals can hold title to the same properties, he said.
Detournel said his firm takes few land dispute cases "because you
can end up dead, or with someone casting a Voodoo spell on you."

In and around Port-au-Prince, most land is owned by the 11
families generally referred to as "the elite" who have business
monopolies and control the government through corruption, said
Reginald Abraham, a Haitian-American property developer among more
than 2 million Haitians in the diaspora.

"They embed with the government, they decide what's going to
happen to the land. They have the government blocking people like
me who want to come home and help rebuild Haiti." Abraham said his
Haiti United Group, aimed at encouraging Haitians abroad to invest
in the country, has more than 900 projects "just sitting on
government desks" including plans to develop Gonave island and
Isle a Vache as well as building a much-needed port on the southern
peninsula.

Bellerive is clearly aware of the stakes.

He told the AP on Thursday, in a separate interview, that the
government could fall as political opponents capitalize on its
inability to respond strongly to the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Camp-dwellers are also offering resistance. Many don't want to
move out of the debris-choked capital, which would separate them
from family, jobs and aid. An Oxfam survey of 110 people showed
less than a third of them willing to move out of the capital.

Meanwhile, those camps are becoming ever more miserable.

Leonel Martine, a 42-year-old electrician, said a light
overnight shower Friday left his camp in ankle-deep water and
soaked the mattress he shares with his wife, his daughter and two
grandchildren.